Merriement

Merry Christmas, 2014. I realized last night (as I awoke off and on pretty much all night) this is the 10th Christmas I've detailed/celebrated on this blog.

J. was up first and me not too much later.  I had said 8AM was my earliest so when I woke up just after 8, I was thinking I'd be the last one up - but the boys were still sleeping.  Merriment began in earnest just after 8:30, I think - though the morning is sort of a blur.

This year, we did 'things we love about you' instead of a scavenger hunt.  The boys had 5 envelopes each and a card inside with something we love about them written down.  They had to read them aloud before/while pulling the loot out of the envelope.  Not as much as in years past but they were both still pretty darn happy.  It was a fun morning.  Chloe had a ball unwrapping her gifts (with H.'s help) and then running around with new toys to play with.  She loves being with us on Christmas day and she loves new toys.

We had Queen and Chocolate croissants for breakfast.  Noonish, I heated up garlic bread to go with leftover soup....wait. Forgot to mention that I made Zuppa Toscano soup last night and it was SO, SO delicious!! Way better than Olive Garden.  So we planned leftover soup for lunch today.  As the bread was toasting, I made the cheese sauce for the au gratin veggies (dinner dish).  The boys thought an impromptu fondue sounded like a great idea - so I made more cheese sauce and they ate bread dipped in that.  They actually seemed to dip anything available in the sauce, including Chicken in a Biscuit crackers!  It was pretty yummy.  I skipped the soup and had fondue for lunch, too.  J. had soup.  And fondue.

The prime rib was in the oven at noon as well and the rub we made was delicious - it included fresh herbs from our Farm Fresh delivery and it smelled wonderful.  The meal was pretty darn wonderful, if I do say so myself.  My beef wellington/popovers turned out very well - the first time they turned out perfectly!  And the sides (green bean casserole, au gratin broccoli and cauliflower and mashed potatoes with a red wine au jus) were all really good, too.

Yesterday, I made my first ever homemade from scratch cream pies - and they turned out great, too.  All that's left on those is to meringue them - the reason I decided to make my own 'cuz I love cream pies but with meringue.  Hope I can finish them off as well as the cream part went.

We are still toying around with Europe trip plans.  The big trip we sketched out would be two full weeks.  It's not inexpensive.  I think my desire to fly Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy is something I'm going to have to give up.  At the moment, I think J. and H. will make a four night trip to Rome in February and then J. and I will spend 8 nights in Paris in March.  We can make both of those trips for less than 1/2 of what we were planning to spend on the big trip for all three of us.  As much as I'd love to all go together, we were adding extra days to wedge it all in - and that took us out of the 'pre-planned package deals' and into the 'planned, more expensive' deals.  The travel agency we use (the same one who did the Groupon trip we went on last year) really does have amazing deals - the 4 nights in Rome including hotels, airfare and ground transfers is under $3K for the two of them - that's pretty amazing!

It will work out better because H. is going to start looking for a job and/or go back to school soon.  I still want to give him that experience but with the two trips being so much less than the one we were planning, my frugal side takes over.  Two trips in the Spring and then maybe J. and I can escape to somewhere beachy for a few days in the summer.  I miss the beach.

The boys have all kinds of friend plans this week though not too much specific.  It's hard to believe we're already down to only ten full days of the break left - it goes so quickly.

Lots to do around here over the next few days - and I hope I get moving.  I didn't feel all that well today (headache, ear thing) so I'm hoping I'm not coming down with something.  The 10 sneezes earlier had to be caused by the rub I made for the prime rib, right?  Pepper.  It was the pepper.

I'm going to meringue.  Wish me luck.